i disagree that our defense is better. we gifted away a lot of points from winning positions this season because of our fragile defense. and not only did we gift those points, i think the general unease in our team based on our defense created problems in attack as well. our CB pairings did not look convincing at all. at times we looked disjointed in our deep midfield, leading to giveaways and chances on goal.
our defending issues are almost equally down to our system and our personnel. kos is by far our best defender, but he has limitations too. and even if you have 1 world class CB, if his partner is well below par, and he isn't getting support from the fullbacks or defensive midfielders, the team will be vulnerable.
leicester won a lot of 1-0 and 2-1 games this season. when you are solid at the back, the rest of the team will feel more relaxed, and the fans will feel relaxed as well. the anxiety at the emirates played a big role this season in our poor home form, in my opinion, and i think that anxiety is largely down to our fragility. at times this season, it felt like every time the other team got into our 18 yard area a goal would be scored. we gave up so many 2v2 breaks or 1v1 breaks, and there were games where the other team had 1 or 2 chances and they scored. like the palace game. if we have a more confident, well organized defense, those games wouldn't happen with any kind of regularity.
when you encourage your fullbacks to bomb forward at every opportunity, you need 2 excellent CBs and a top class DM to protect the goalkeeper. we have one excellent CB and one average DM, and then a collection of suspects who should not be in the starting eleven
